Page 46 - BusinessWest February 3, 2021

Mount Holyoke College Receives Largest Gift in Its History
SOUTH HADLEY — Mount Holyoke College announced it has received the largest gift in support of financial aid in its history. Alumna Liz Cochary Gross and Philip Gross have committed $10 mil-
Comcast Introduces Fastest Internet
Speeds over Wi-fi Across Northeast
PHILADELPHIA — Comcast announced it has intro- duced the fastest internet speeds over wi-fi available across the Northeast, including 14 states from Maine to Virginia and Washington, D.C. Customers can
Boston Children’s Hospital, Baystate Health Collaborate on Specialized Pediatric Care
SPRINGFIELD — Boston Children’s Hospital and Baystate Health have formed a collaboration that will improve patient access to highly specialized pediatric care and strengthen the coordination of care between Boston Children’s and Baystate Children’s Hospital in Springfield. The collaboration will provide patients throughout Western Mass. with improved access to pediatric specialty care at Baystate Children’s Hospi- tal, and it will streamline care planning among pro- viders at Boston Children’s and Baystate Children’s. The collaboration anticipates that the two hospitals will jointly develop pathways to ensure that children and adolescents get the right care in the right setting. In some instances, Boston Children’s clinicians will be available to provide care at Baystate Children’s. The two hospitals already work collaboratively in cardiol- ogy, neurology, and dermatology, and by enhancing medical education, remote consults, information technology, and other initiatives, the two institu- tions will be better able to coordinate care for their patients.
Boulevard Machine & Gear Moves to Larger Headquarters
WESTFIELD — Boulevard Machine & Gear, a pre- cision-machining facility, announced it has moved its headquarters to a new, larger space in Westfield to accommodate steady business growth over the last decade. The new address is 326 Lockhouse Road. Boulevard Machine will leverage its new facil- ity to provide additional capacity for its customers while providing new internal operational efficien- cies. The new facility also will provide Boulevard with improved, state-of-the-art production space
to facilitate internal and external collaboration and communication, while providing the company with further room for growth with its ongoing investment in equipment. The newly constructed factory will accommodate leading-edge manufacturing technolo- gies, lean equipment layout, and automated work- flow, resulting in increased efficiency and better over- all customer experience, company President Susan Kasa said. Boulevard Machine, founded in 1954, was acquired by Kasa in 2006. It is a certified woman- owned business that provides precision-machined components for the aerospace, defense, and medical markets.
Balise Auto Boosts Square One’s Campaign for Healthy Kids
SPRINGFIELD — Balise Auto, a long-time supporter of Square One, recently committed $15,000 toward the agency’s Adopt-A-Classroom initiative. “We have been so impressed by Square One’s dedication and ability to find creative and effective ways to support the education of children and families in our com- munity,” said Alexandra Balise, director of Market- ing at Balise Auto. “Balise is proud to support Square One and their ongoing efforts to shape the leaders
of tomorrow.” Square One’s Adopt-A-Classroom pro- gram is part of the agency’s Campaign for Healthy Kids, a multi-year fund-development initiative focused on the agency’s commitment to providing healthy meals, physical fitness, social-emotional well- being, and a healthy learning environment. The gift from Balise comes at a critical time, as Square One continues to provide full-day remote-learning sup-
Notebook
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Company Notebook
now take advantage of advanced wi-fi technology that is capable of deliver- ing speeds faster than a gig to support the ever-increasing number of con- nected devices in their homes. The speed increase was rolled out in Com-
lion to be directed to scholarships and financial aid. Nancy Nordhoff, a 1954 graduate, also committed $1 million to support future Mount Holyoke students across the economic spectrum. These two gifts are the seed for Mount Holyoke’s new Meet the Moment Scholarship Challenge. This challenge offers donors the opportunity to double — or triple — their impact with their endowment gifts. For first-time donors to endowed financial aid, the Meet the Moment Schol- arship Challenge will match two dollars for every
one dollar contributed for gifts between $50,000 and $250,000. For repeat endowed financial-aid donors, the challenge will match new gift commitments between $50,000 and $250,000 dollar for dollar. The college is seeking to raise at least $20 million in new gifts and commitments over the next 18 months. As of Jan. 14, Mount Holyoke has already secured more than $5 million in gifts and commitments toward this effort, above and beyond the $11 million in challenge gifts.
Big Y Participating in Nexamp Community Solar Program
SPRINGFIELD — Big Y World Class Market has taken another step in supporting the production and con- sumption of clean energy by contracting with Boston- based Nexamp to participate in its community solar program. Under the agreement with Nexamp, Big Y is subscribing to 19 solar projects across Massachusetts, representing a total of 57 megawatts of capacity. Big
Y will receive 50% of the energy credits generated by these projects. The projects included in Big Y’s agree- ment with Nexamp are located in Massachusetts in the National Grid and Eversource utility service ter- ritories. Big Y and other subscribers to these com- munity solar projects are allocated a portion of the project’s output and receive discounted credits on their utility bills.
Monson Savings Bank Gives $15,000 to Nonprofits Chosen by Community
MONSON — After Monson Savings Bank asked com- munity members to cast their votes for their favorite charitable organizations as a part of the Monson Sav- ings Bank 2021 Community Giving Initiative, more than 3,400 votes were received. Now that the votes have been tallied, Monson Savings Bank is donating
a total of $15,000 among the top 10 vote recipients.
In total, 200 organizations received votes. The recipi- ents include Women’s Empowerment Scholarship (Greater Springfield), Wilbraham United Players, Shri- ners Hospitals for Children – Springfield, Rick’s Place (Wilbraham), I Found Light Against All Odds (Greater Springfield), Academy Hill Private School Scholar- ship (Springfield), Scantic Valley YMCA (Wilbraham), Monson Free Library, St. Michael’s Players (East Longmeadow), and Link to Libraries Inc. (Hampden). This was the 11th year of the Monson Savings Bank Initiative.
cast’s Northeast markets on Jan. 7 for no additional charge to customers, and will be introduced to the rest of its service areas throughout 2021. Comcast is one of the first U.S. internet service providers to offer a Wi-Fi 6 certified gateway with the latest version of its xFi Advanced Gateway, which is capable of deliv- ering multi-gigabit speeds via ethernet and laid the groundwork for gigabit speeds over wi-fi. Customers on the upgraded Xfinity gigabit tier will require an xFi Advanced Gateway, or one of the wi-fi-6-capable devices approved to work with the Xfinity network to receive the faster speeds. Comcast will be reaching out to customers who need to upgrade their equip- ment for no additional cost if they don’t have a capa- ble device in their home.
Nursing Schools Almanac Names AIC Among Best Schools for Nursing
SPRINGFIELD — Nursing Schools Almanac has released its 2020 rankings of the best nursing schools in the U.S. In collecting data on more than 3,000 institutions nationwide, only 20% made the list of the best nursing schools in each geographic region. The nursing program at American International Col- lege (AIC) was named in both the New England and Massachusetts categories, placing 45th in the region and 21st in the state. Each school was evaluated on three dimensions: the institution’s academic prestige and perceived value, the breadth and depth of nurs- ing programs offered, and student success, particu- larly on the NCLEX licensure examination. Nursing Schools Almanac combined the assessments into an overall score and ranked the schools accordingly.
The Royal Law Firm Announces New Strategic Association
SPRINGFIELD — The Royal Law Firm announced it has established a mutual of-counsel association with Minasian Becker LLC, a boutique commercial real- estate and business law firm, as of the third quarter of 2020. Complementing Royal’s business-side-only litigation practice, this association will provide Royal clients with the added benefits of commercial real- estate and corporate transactional work. The Mina- sian Becker team of attorneys has represented region- al, national, and international companies and non- profit organizations with their commercial real-estate and business-transaction needs for more than 25 years. Amy Royal, founding partner of the Royal Law Firm, believes the relationship with Minasian Becker will be an attractive supplement to Royal’s existing law practice of labor and employment law and other business-related litigation. With this alignment of their practices, Royal and Minasian Becker will offer their clients locations in Arlington, Springfield, and Rockport in Massachusetts, as well as in Hartford, Conn. Royal attorneys are admitted to practice in the state and federal courts of Massachusetts, Connecti- cut, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York. Both law firms are nationally certified as women’s busi- ness enterprises and women owned small businesses, and are able to offer the benefits of diversity to their clients.
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